Three billion-year-old genomic fossils deciphered

Scientists traced thousands of genes from modern genomes back to those genes' first appearance on Earth to create a genomic fossil telling when genes came into being and which ancient microbes possessed them. They found that the collective genome underwent an expansion between 3.3 and 2.8 billion years ago, during which time 27 percent of all presently existing gene families came into being. Many are oxygen related, an early indicator of the Great Oxidation Event.

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